


Block V-128, Earth.

by MiyaBlack



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AvianExperiments, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, experiment au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-12-31 19:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12139191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyaBlack/pseuds/MiyaBlack
Summary: Earth fell long before he had even been born. He knew nothing but the Farm where he'd grown up and the Cages, where he was kept after the torture and experiments that were carried out on him day after day. But A-12 and his block have hope and not even the Galra can take that from them. All they have to do now is survive heartbreak, lies, treason, rebellion, pain and love. All they want is freedom in this post apocalyptic world.





	1. The Cages

The cold night air made him shiver and press himself further into the cage. The injuries from the operation had not yet healed and still, he’d been pushed into a full physical course. They didn’t really care, though.

 

_ “It’ll die, surely. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it and fix those mistakes in the new generation.” _

 

At least the cold bars pressing against his back helped bring the fever he probably had down. His wings were somewhat in the way, but he managed a comfortable enough position. They weren’t as large as E-27’s, ‘course, but they were the longest in his row and there was no way that he could stretch them all the way in his cage. Luckily, though, the operation had been in his human legs and arms and he still had enough space to stretch and bend or try anything to keep the pain away, even if it were for just a few seconds.

 

“Is it still that bad?” a soft, warm voice called out to him from the darkness of the cage next to his, noticing his shuffling. 

 

It wouldn’t be if those bastards had let him rest. If he’d had one more day to heal up after the extension to his legs and arms to make him taller and larger than an average 14 year old, he would’ve been fine. But they hadn’t. They had pushed him to his limits and beyond. They had pushed him until he hadn’t been able to walk or raise a finger. 

 

“... It’s getting better.” 

 

It was a lie, but O-33 was too much of a sweetheart and he didn’t want to worry him.

 

They didn’t get names, just identification codes. Once in the cages, they had little time to interact with each other and they often moved their cages to keep them for talking too much between themselves. However, he and O-33 had come from neighboring farms and came from the same generation, so they often got to talk to each other. They didn’t really get to know their family or grow up in one, since they were moved to the labs at 10, but they always seemed to be near each other, so they had bonded. O-33  was the closest thing to… to anything really. A friend, a brother… It seemed so alien to him, the idea of growing up with a brother, but at the same time, O-33 had always been there. They had always been together. 

 

And now, he was going to die. He’d always been taught that crying was useless. It wouldn’t stop the scientists’ hands or get him more food or something to fend off the cold. Yet there he was, crying in complete silence, over how helpless he felt. He dreaded the idea of leaving O-33 behind, alone.

 

The day went by in a feverish delusion. He dreamt he saw blue open skies, dense forests, a cake. He’d seen pictures in some book or another, heard the old ones talk of them... But he’d never seen them in real life. 

 

Maybe one day. 

 

His legs were swollen and the scientists made him swallow some pills. 

 

_ “Experimental. They might boost his healing. Or they might collapse his lungs. We’ll see.” _

 

Probably never.

 

There were several alarms that meant several things. The wake up alarm, the eat alarm, the laboratory time alarm. He’d slept through most that day, and it was until the night time alarm that he woke up. O-33 was being brought back and pushed into his cage. He smelled of sweat and blood. The scientists walked away, laughing and talking amongst themselves, ignoring O-33’s sobs.

 

“Hey, today I got medicine. I’m going to be fine by tomorrow.” his voice was wispy and soft. They weren’t allowed to talk amongst themselves, but the scientists were gone. As long as they didn’t start a ruckus, they’d be fine. 

 

However, O-33 didn’t answer back. He felt anger, bubbling up inside of him, bitter in his tongue. They just had to break everything. Everyone. Not even sweet O-33 was save from those barbarians.

 

“I’ve been thinking about something.” he insisted, pushing himself towards the small window that was meant for air circulation but allowed him a small glimpse of the cage besides his. 

 

“ ‘bout what?...” O-33’s broken voice asked, soft, sad, but he could hear shuffling. Soon enough, O-33’s brown eyes peeked through the small opening. They were red and puffy, with tears still falling from them.

 

“We should give each other names.” he said, a confident smile in his thin face.

 

“Names?” O-33 asked, rubbing his face. “What for?”

 

“I don’t want to call myself A-12. That’s their code for me. I want my name for me.” he explained as if it was the most obvious thing. 

 

O-33 seemed stunned for a moment, his brow frowned in thought. “A name… for us? For me?” he asked.

 

“Sure.” It had honestly started as a way to get O-33’s mind off whatever they had done to him, even if it was just for a bit, but the more he thought about it the better it sounded. Besides, if he was going to die, he was going to die with a name, not a code. 

 

O-33 looked at him, curious. “Do we get to choose our own names?”

 

“You can or I can make one up for you. It could be like a gift! And you can choose mine, too.”

 

He turned to the hallway to find E-27 leaning on the side of his cage, calmly drinking water, though obviously exhausted. Carefully, he half crawled half dragged himself up to his cage’s door. 

 

“Hey, E-27, wouldn’t it be cool if we had our own names?” he called out to the larger avian. 

 

E-27 was the largest of their block and also the oldest. He was strong but kind and always encouraged the younger ones, even soothing the ones everyone knew wouldn’t last the night. He was well liked and respected and if he convinced him, O-33 would definitely go for it.

 

“A name?” E-27 asked, tilting his head sideways.

 

“Yeah. A name. The scientists wouldn’t know them. Nobody outside of us would. I just don’t want to use their name for anyone.” he explained shrugging his shoulders. 

 

E-27 smiled, looking a bit surprised. “That’s… actually an excellent idea.”

 

G-38, whose cage was next to E-27 peeked out of his cage. He was smaller than E-27 but was one of the oldest in the block, too. He was smart and thin, probably from giving up his meals to others, and one of the few amongst them to actually have a blood relative within the same block. 

 

“I… like that idea. What do you think?”

 

He was talking to a girl to the left of A-12’s cage, G-39. She was actually the spitting image of G-38, except that she was younger and, well, a girl. He suspected that G-39 was even younger than himself and O-33.

 

“Stupidly simple…” G-39 said, her voice small, yet even he could hear the smile in it. “But I want one.”

 

They all hummed in agreement and then became silent for a few moments as they considered their options. 

 

“Catherine the Great.” G-39 suddenly said, breaking the silence. “She was a great queen from Earth. Smart and everything. I want her name.”

 

“Catherine? The great?” 

 

“It’s a bit too long.”

 

“And it’s too many words!”

 

“You were going to call yourself something ridiculous too, I bet, A-12!”

 

“Nu-uh!”

 

“How ‘bout Katie?”

 

G-39, whose honey eyes had been glaring at him through the small window, turned to look at her brother. “Katie?”

 

“Yeah, Katie. It kinda sounds like you, you know? Katie.” G-38 replied with a smile. 

 

“I like it!” E-27 echoed the idea, which made G-39 a little flustered. 

 

“Ohhohhh…” he started to tease her, but she interrupted him with a “That sounds okay. Katie, then.”

 

He laughed and then turned to the right side of his cage. “How ‘bout you, hunk? Any ideas?” he asked, curious to see what his friend would come up with.

 

“What did you call me?” O-33 asked curiously.

 

“What? When?”

 

“Right now.”

 

“Uh… Hunk?” he replied, confused. It was a kind of pet name that someone in his farm had used. They’d said it was so he didn’t forget anyone’s name. 

 

“I like that. Hunk.”

 

“But that’s just a pet name, right?” Katie asked, once again looking through his small window to see if she could get a glimpse of O-33.

 

“But I like it. It sounds strong.” O-33 replied. “And I need to be strong.” he added, though a bit softer.

 

“Hunk it’ll be then!” he announced, nodding his head in approval. 

 

“Takashi Shirogane.” E-27 said suddenly.

 

He turned to look through the hallway at him. It was long and complicated, but somehow the two names sounded right together. And right for E-27 too.

 

“Hey, that’s long too! No fair!” Katie complained, and he could see her leaning on the bars of her cage, looking at E-27.

 

“Well… It’s a family name.”

 

They all fell silent. None of them had had a chance to be with a family, to know their parents. They had been incubated as avians, grown in farms and lived most of their lives in the cages. Shiro hadn’t. Rumors went around that he’d actually been born of his mother and that he had been taken then. He’d asked him once, but he’d just said nothing and G-38 had chastised him over asking something so personal, so he’d never brought it up again.

 

“We can shorten it up, use a nickname.” he suggested, trying to break the silence. 

 

“Taka.” G-38 suggested quickly, looking through his own window at E-27’s cage.

 

“Taka?”

 

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “That kinda sounds like food!”

 

And they all laughed a bit until an avian from the row above hissed at them to be quiet.

 

“Party pooper.” he pouted, but did lower his voice. Many avians were tired after a day in the lab and just wanted to sleep.

 

“All right, if not Taka…”

 

“Ashi?”

 

“Nah.”

 

E-27, despite insisting on having a long name, looked amused at their attempts to make sense of it. 

 

“Shiro.” Hunk suggested and they all fell silent for a bit, rolling around the name for a bit, testing it.

 

“Shiro?”

 

“Short and sweet.”

 

“Does it sound like food too?”

 

“No, no, I mean…. Heh, forget it. It sounds good, that’s what I meant.”

 

“Is Shiro okay then?” G-38 asked, peeking at E-27 through the bars. 

 

“I like it.” Shiro agreed with a smile. 

 

“And… How about Matthew? Matt?” Katie said suddenly, looking at her brother. 

G-38 had been a bit taken aback by his sister’s suggestion, but after a few seconds seemed to approve of it. “You’d been thinking about it, huh?” he asked.

 

Katie didn’t reply, but he could hear her nodding. 

 

“Matt. I like it.” Shiro agreed, looking through his window. “It kinda fits you, you know?”

 

“How come?” Matt asked, curiously.

 

“When you sleep, it’s all spread out, like a mat.” 

 

And it probably was the way in which Shiro said it, so earnestly, or maybe Matt’s offended gasp, that had Katie, Hunk and him bursting with laughter and giggles.

 

And then the door to the block opened. 

 

He covered his mouth immediately, his lungs almost spasming from the shocked and terrified gasp that escaped his lips, his laughter long drowned within his own fear.

 

“What is this? Are we having a party in here?”

 

The voice of the guard echoed in the block. They hadn’t been the only ones having a light chat, but they had surely been the loudest. 

 

His heart shrank in his chest and his stomach twisted in fear. He had pressed himself against the back of the cage, the furthest he could be from the hallway, ignoring even the pain in his legs and arms. He curled himself up within his wings, trying to disappear into the white and gray feathers. He didn’t even hear the guard come up to his cage.

 

“I could hear your annoying laughter all the way to the outside hallway, A-12.”

 

The guard’s yellow eyes glared at him and he could do nothing but choke a sob, his fingers digging into his own cheeks as he tried to keep himself quiet. His eyes hazed over with tears, yet, he could still see the purple fur and yellow eyes in front of his cage. 

 

“I know the docs said that you were in medication, but I won’t tell if you do, huh?” the soldier hissed with a menacing grin that showed his fangs.

 

And he could’ve sworn his own heart stopped even before the Galra soldier brought out the buzzer. It was a small device that controlled the shock collars that they all had around their necks. It was impressive how such a little thing could get even the strongest amongst them to whimper in fear. It was the soldier’s favourite weapon, after all, and they used them indiscriminately and mercilessly.

 

His screams now echoed in the block, the convulsing that the electricity flowing through his body caused further injured his limbs and tears ran freely from his eyes. Something actually cracked and he could smell his own skin burning before it stopped and he fell to the floor in a strange angle. 

 

“Stupid human rats.” the soldier said, not that he could hear it. 

 

The block fell into an absolute silence as the soldier walked out. Some nights the soft whispers and giggles could almost make them forget the pain, the horror… but then the soldiers would come and reality would be cruelly slapped right back into them.

 

“...A-12?” Hunk’s voice was barely a whisper, a terrified little whimper. It was almost a plea for him to be okay.

 

But he wasn’t. 

 

Even in his semi conscious state he could smell the burnt flesh that emanated from the burns around his neck and shoulders. He was pretty sure that he’d chipped his tooth and that his wrist was not supposed to bend that way. His last conscious thoughts were over how much he hated that damned collar.  


	2. His Name

He had probably slipped into unconsciousness for a while, because suddenly he could hear Katie and Hunk talking to each other in soft whispers, though it took him a while to really be able to focus on their words.

 

“I can see him breathing, Hunk. He was just knocked out.” she tried assuring him, but he sounded unconsolable.

 

“No, he’s not. Don’t try to hide it from me. He’s gone. Gone. I-”

 

He still felt too weak but he coughed slightly, every part of his body screaming out in pain.

 

“Oh. Oh goodness. Oh he’s breathing. He really is.” 

 

He would’ve laughed over the fact that him being alive only made Hunk cry more, but he could barely move, let alone laugh. 

 

“Wrist. Hurts.” he managed to croak out and tried to lift his hand to show them, but just shifting it slightly made him see stars and whimper in pain.

 

“It’s dislocated.” he heard Shiro point out, seriously. “Katie, you have to straighten it.”

 

Shiro didn’t say what would happen if she didn’t, but they all knew and the knowledge loomed over all of them.

 

His crate would be taken away.

 

“A-12 I need you to-” 

 

“Lancelot.” Hunk interrupted Katie, sorrowfully.

 

“Wh-”

 

“He hadn’t gotten his name yet.” Hunk muttered through his tears. “And he has to be named after a brave knight. So Lancelot.” 

 

He didn’t know there was a knight named Lancelot… He knew very little about Earth knights, as a matter of fact. He’d ask Hunk once he felt better. 

 

“Too long. Just Lance.” he whispered with a smile and Hunk half chuckled half sobbed softly. 

 

“All right. Lance.” Katie said and paused for a moment as she sighed, taking a moment to compose herself. “You have to come up to me, I can barely reach you.”

 

Lance only knew he wasn’t dead because of the nauseating pain that invaded every part of his body. Slowly, he crawled up to his window to Katie and carefully placed his injured hand in her grasp.

 

“I’m gonna do it on three. One, two…!”

 

Lance learned two things that instant. Number one, fixing a dislocated wrist hurted like a bitch and two, Katie was a filthy liar. If she said ‘on three’ she would actually do it on two.

 

“It hurts less if you’re not expecting it.” she tried explaining.

 

“Bullshit.” he cried, blood filling his mouth from having bitten his lip to stop from screaming.

 

In the end, however, he ended up healing overnight and owing his life to Katie and to that damned medicine that, thankfully, didn’t collapse his lungs in the end. His accelerated healing time hadn’t hurt either. 

 

After all, everyone knew that a specimen that healed up wrong would either be broken again or just killed.


	3. Shameful Goodbyes

They changed their cages the night after, to keep them from talking to each other again. 

 

If he pushed against his cage’s bars he could catch a glimpse of Hunk’s brown wings if he stuck them out of his cage a level above him. Some nights they would whistle just to let each other know that they were alive.

 

A week after that, they were changed again and he got Shiro to his right and Katie smack right above him with Matt in front of her. Still, Hunk was left far from them.

 

The day had been specially terrible and the night particularly cold. His legs and arms had long since healed, though they ached like crazy in cold nights, and so, kept him from falling asleep.

 

Katie had a headache and Matt was also knocked out, so he had been talking in whispers with Shiro.

 

“An albatross?” Lance asked, looking at his long wings with a newfound curiosity.

 

“Probably. I know I got mine from an eagle, but there were many subspecies, so I don’t know which.” he explained, scratching the back of his head and fluffing up his hair.

 

Lance hummed as he ran his fingers through his white feathers. They often had him practice with them, though it had never occurred to him that there were different kinds of birds with different flying styles. 

 

Shiro, who was in the advanced flying program, had learned a lot recently and he’d shared most of it with Lance.

 

He’d started explaining about the other kinds of avians when the doors slammed open.

 

And in came the crane.

 

They only brought the crane at night when they were taking a cage away. Neither of them had heard of someone dying or someone near death. Lance himself had been the closest recently, but he’d gotten better.

 

Yet the crane was coming his way.

 

He started panicking, withdrawing to the back of his cage, looking for anything he could hold on to. He couldn’t see anyone from this angle and it struck him that it was useless. If they were taking his cage he might as well say his goodbyes and- 

 

The crane stopped, but not in front of him.

 

He scrambled, falling over himself and practically slamming into the cage’s bars to make sure.

 

They were taking Shiro’s cage.

 

“No!” he couldn’t stop himself from yelling. “He’s healthy! He’s okay!” his voice was breaking from the sheer terror and panic. He had to stop them. They were making a mistake. They had to take him, not Shiro! Never Shiro!

 

Over the buzzing of his own ears, he could hear both Katie and Matt screeching in terror. 

 

“SILENCE!” 

 

The electrical discharge was probably felt by all of the avians in the block since the nervous shuffling and screeching had immediately stopped. It wasn’t even one third of what the soldier had put him through the other night, but it wasn’t supposed to be. It was a warning. And it worked.

 

Silent tears of shame and heartbreak fell from Lance’s eyes as he realized that he didn’t even get to say goodbye. He didn’t dare.


	4. Free

“Lance.”

 

“Hmm?...”

 

“Are you asleep?”

 

“I was.” he replied, somewhat cranky. He’d had a long day in flying program and every muscle in his wings was pulsating with pain.

 

He really could use some rest, but Hunk seemed to have something else in his mind.

 

“Good, ‘cause see, I’ve been thinking.”

 

Lance sighed. It’d been three years since they had taken Shiro. Two and a half since they took Matt. Yet, there the three of them were, still alive, now the oldest of the block.

 

“You don’t say.” Lance muttered a bit sarcastically, though Hunk didn’t really take offense to it.

 

“It could work this time, you know?”

 

Lance lazily opened one of his eyes to look at Hunk through his little window from the corner where he’d lay to sleep.

 

He’d said the same thing the last time. And all of the times before that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to escape. He dreamt of it, every night, every waking hour. Everytime he was tortured and broken he closed his eyes and tried to imagine the sky, space, freedom. However, Hunk and Pidge’s plans rarely got them anything but pain and scorched feathers.

 

With a defeated sigh, he stood up and looked through Hunk’s window. He could even see Pidge’s honey eyes looking at him from the other window in Hunk’s cage. She had refused to take the name Katie again until she found her brother and so had taken the name Pidge.

 

“All right then, big guy. Lay it on me. What do we have to get this time?”

 

It was probably halfway through their sleeping cycle, so most of the others in the block were out cold and the soldiers rarely made their rounds. The perfect time to plan for an escape.

 

Hunk had been halfway through explaining his new plan on how to obtain and sneak a small metal piece into their cages (which could be later transformed into a tool) when the lights went out with a low hum.

 

“Guys?” Lance heard Hunk whisper, terror filling his voice.

 

“It’s okay. Everything’s okay. There’s nothing here.” Pidge offered quickly. Her eyes had been operated on a few weeks after Matt had been taken away. It had taken some time, but she’d healed and now could see perfectly in the dark.

 

“I… I can hear running.” Lance had always had a keen ear, which apparently came from DNA modifications and not an operation, which he was kind of glad for.

 

He was used to the laboratory’s constant humming, the marching of soldiers outside and the sobs from other avians. But at that moment, the noise was coming from outside and the block was completely dead quiet. They were all waiting for something, though they did not know what.

 

Suddenly the sound of something metallic hitting the ground harshly made them all jump out of their damned skins. He was trying to make sense of the whispers in the row above them when Pidge let out a cry.

 

“Pidge! Wha-” Hunk had begun and Lance had turned to try and take a look through his window when he realized it too. The shock collar was loose in his neck.

 

And the metallic sound now made sense.

 

He pulled the damned thing off as if nothing, his neck was sore and scarred but he was free.

 

Free.

 

With tears on his eyes, he tried babbling to Hunk to take it off, but he was too excited to even be able to say anything coherent.

 

“The collar, Hunk!” Pidge finally screeched, jumping to her feet. “It’s off! Take it off!”

 

He tripped over to the gates of his cage to see if he could see anything else when the bars beneath his fingers clicked and the gate opened.

 

He stood in shock for what seemed like an eternity but could have not been more than a second since nobody had seemed to even take notice. With his heart on his throat, he pushed further and further and it opened wider and wider.

 

He couldn’t even speak as he took his first trembling step outside of his cage. The avian in the cage in front of him had noticed, but they said nothing, either. It felt like a dream, a bubble. If Lance moved too quickly, he would wake up. If he was too loud, he would wake up. If he realized that this was a dream, he would wake up.

 

Yet, the feeling of the cold floor beneath his bare feet felt real. The lightness of his shoulders without the collar felt real too.

 

He turned to look down the hallway and met with Pidge’s eyes, who had apparently discovered the same thing he had.

 

They stared at each other in shock and wonder. In that precise moment, he remembered something someone from his farm had taught him long ago.

 

_“Hope is heavy, it’s dangerous and painful. Oh, but nothing fills your heart like hope does. If you find it, hold on to it, kid. Hold on to it and never let go.”_

 

His body had moved automatically, his legs taking him to Pidge and his arms carrying her into an embrace. They had held each other’s hands through the windows, but nothing more. At some point or another, Hunk had joined their embrace and all three of them sobbed into each other, grasping at shirts, holding faces and laughing like idiots.

 

Whatever happened from that moment on, Lance would always remember that moment and the feeling of having his arms around his two best friends. They were hope, and he wasn’t going to let go.

 

“Apparently there’s been an explosion, the soldiers are fighting something, the hallways are empty!” someone called out a couple of floors above them. Some rushed to the doors while others lingered around unsure or still in shock or trying to get someone out of a cage.

 

“We have to go.” Pidge said as they all turned and looked as avians fled out through the doors through which the soldiers normally came in through.

 

“Yeah. Yes, we have to…” Lance agreed, but he looked at the hallway with suspicion.

 

“But, which way?” Hunk asked, looking back to the other side of the hallway where the door from which the scientists came from was.

 

“Labs are to the left, barracks to the right.” Pidge observed as she cleaned her face from the tears, looking in both directions. “We might find less resistance if we leave through the labs, I think.”

 

“Wherever we go, don’t let go.” Hunk warned them, holding tightly to their hands.

 

“If the explosion came from where the barracks are, we might find an easier exit through there.” Lance pointed out, hesitating.

 

Pidge hummed in thought. “And it makes sense that the defences are in the outer areas of the building. It might be harder, but we have a higher possibility of finding an exit.”

 

“Let’s go then.” Lance declared, pulling on Hunk’s hand, who in turn, pulled on Pidge.

 

It was chaos.

 

Avians were running everywhere but Lance could even see people with no wings and with other kinds of deformations and mutations. They were all trying to flee and were in panic, looking for a way out.

 

“This way!”

 

He could barely hear Pidge’s voice over all of the yelling, so he made a point of never taking his eyes off of her and Hunk. He had no idea of where they were going and he was pretty sure that Pidge was working off of a hunch, but he trusted her. Whatever happened, they would face it together.

 

“In here!” she yelled as she stopped in front of a door. “Hunk, could you?”

 

Hunk let go of their hands to dig his fingers into the small space that he could find between the door and the wall. With a grunt, he pulled the door open, revealing a wide open space that was empty as far as any of them could see. They all ran in and Hunk closed the door behind him.

 

Lance sighed in relief. Even if it was just a metal door, it blocked off the avalanche of noise that he had been suffering through since they left their block and had started to drill a bad headache into his head.

 

“Should I tell others to come here?” Hunk asked, looking guiltily at the door but Pidge just shook her head.

 

“They won’t hear you and I am not sure that there is an exit here. If there is none, it’ll just become a prison for all of those who do follow us.”

 

“Where is ‘here’ exactly?” Lance asked, trying to make sense of the shadows around them. He could hear the echo of their steps and voices, which led him to think that it was a wide space, but he could tell nothing else.

 

“This is a hangar, I think.” Pidge answered, her tiny hand slipping into Lance’s and Hunk’s to guide them. “I saw markings on the floor and since we were in the barrack area, it just made sense that the soldiers would have a quick and clearly marked path to one. This is a grounded base, so I think that there should be an exit somewhere around here.”

 

Lance couldn’t help but smile. He’d always known that Pidge was smart, but he couldn’t help but feel a small surge of pride and happiness.

 

They were going to get out of there.

 

Suddenly, the sound of a door starting to slide alerted him and he immediately pulled on both of his friends to hide behind something. They could now all clearly hear the sound of someone opening the door, the sound of the chaos outside slipping in for a moment until the person closed the door again.

 

Without making a noise, Pidge peeked around the crate to see who had entered the room.

 

“It’s… an avian. Two of them. One dragging the other.” she reported as Hunk sighed in relief. Lance could hear something metallic dragging as well so he focused on the sound to try to figure out if he could identify it.

 

_“Keith, I’m really not going to make it. And you have to stop them.”_

 

The voice was barely a whisper, laced with pain, but still. Still…

 

Lance’s heart really couldn’t take anymore today, and if he was right…

 

“Lance, what are you doing? We don’t know who they are.” Pidge hissed at him as he stood up, leaving him in plain view.

 

“But… we might…” he answered back in a whisper and then, raising his voice called out, shakingly. “S-Shiro?”

 

He heard Hunk gasp and Pidge jumped up immediately.

 

“Who’s there?!” that had to be the other avian, since it was a voice that Lance did not recognize, but the other voice… He was sure.

 

“Lance, are you sure?” Pidge asked him but Lance just placed his hand on her shoulder.

 

“We just… want to get out of here too. We are friends. I just… Shiro, is that you?”

 

Years of guilt and regret weighed him down as he waited for the answer. Maybe he was wrong. He had to be wrong. His cage had been taken. It had been three years.

 

“...Lance?”

 

Before Lance or Hunk could stop her, Pidge ran from their side.

 

“Shiro! Shiro!” He could hear Pidge’s small clumsy feet running and then something metallic being drawn out.

 

“Pidge, no, wait!” he called out in warning, now also trying to make his way to them, albeit being a lot clumsier, since he could not see a thing, and Hunk was not far behind him.

 

“Keith, don’t! It’s okay!”

 

“Don’t you touch a hair on that girl’s head!” Hunk cried out, scared and desperate since he couldn’t see or hear a thing.

 

Lance heard Pidge’s steps slow down and her soft sobs. “It’s him, guys.” she cried. “It’s… oh, Shiro, what did they do to you?”

 

Shiro was sobbing too but Lance could hear the smile in his words anyway. “Katie, I thought I’d never see you again I-”

 

A huge explosion shook the entire building and threw them off their feet. Lance hadn’t even had the chance to cover his ears, which now were buzzing painfully and he was pretty sure were bleeding as well. And he couldn’t hear a thing. It took him a few minutes to realize that the walls and doors had been cracked and that a fiery red light was pouring through from the hallways that had been filled with people just seconds before.

 

At that moment it didn’t even cross his mind, but he would later be glad to not be able to hear then. He didn’t need the memory of the sound of sizzling flesh and dying screams in his memory.

 

Thanks to the small rays of light that now penetrated the hangar, he could see the scene before him.

 

It was Shiro, all right. He could be scarred, part of his hair turned white and look beaten to an inch of his life, but it was still their Shiro. He was holding on to Pidge while a guy with fierce looking eyes and black hair was slowly standing up besides them.

 

Hunk suddenly came up to him and asked him something but Lance just shook his head and pointed to his ears. He felt nauseous and dizzy, but with Hunk’s help he stood up. They then walked towards the other three and Hunk talked to the other guy who was with Shiro. After a few words, Shiro intervened. The guy looked upset but nodded anyway. Carefully, Hunk picked Shiro up and Pidge and the guy helped him stand up straight and walk towards the other end of the room, away from the fire.

 

The guy pointed them at some vehicle before leaving Pidge to carry him by herself and going to open the door.

 

“Is he going to drive? I just got out of here, I don’t want to die so soon!” he said. Or probably yelled, he really couldn’t tell. It was a bit frightening to know that you were speaking yet not hearing a thing, but the buzz was dying down at least. Pidge said something to him, which he could still not hear and the guy simply raised a brow at him and then turned away to help Hunk with loading Shiro into the back of the car while Pidge helped him get into the front seat. From there, he saw the three of them walking to a wall and looming over a panel. They stayed there for a few minutes before Pidge pushed them both away and had a go at it. He didn’t really hear the door opening, but he could feel it. It was a huge metallic door that rumbled as it opened. The three of them quickly ran back to the car and they all piled in, with Hunk joining him in the front seat and Pidge going for the back. The angry looking guy took the wheel and after the push of a few buttons Lance could feel the rumbling of the motor starting up. It took a bit longer for the door to open all the way, but as soon as it was, angry mullet guy slammed the steering wheel and the car zoomed forward, drowning all of Lance’s complaints with the speed.

 

And before Lance could really process what was happening, they were out of the building that had been his life and his prison.

 

He might’ve been deaf and on the edge of throwing up, but he still leaned out of the window, both middle fingers risen.

 

“UNTIL NEVER ASS HOLES!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Hunk had been holding him, so by the way that his chest was bouncing he could tell he was laughing and he started laughing too. Thankfully though, he was still leaning out when all of his stomach’s contents decided to pour out of him. He didn’t really remember much after that.


	5. Strangers

He woke up with a jolt, his senses in high alert. It was a habit, really, and it took him a few seconds of almost having a panic attack to remember what was going on.

 

“Easy there, Lance. Calm down. It’s ok, we’re fine.” 

 

Hunk’s voice was dulled out, though it probably had to do with the mild buzzing still in his ears, but it ended up working and calming him down. It also reminded him that they were out of the Cages. He felt like crying all over again.

 

“Hey there, Pukey McPukington. Welcome back to the land of the living, how are you feeling?”

 

Lance rubbed his face and looked back to find Pidge leaning in from the back seats. 

 

“Like I got my ears exploded.” he whined but smiled anyway. 

 

“That’s ‘cause you probably did.” 

 

Lance glanced up at the angry looking avian who’d been with Shiro. He looked around their age and still had that scowl in his face, which made him consider the fact that it might be permanent. His wings looked slim, probably specialized in acrobatic and fast flying, with glossy black feathers. He also had a pretty rad mullet, which for some reason, he found really funny.

 

“Oh, Lance, this is Keith. Keith, Lance. Shiro introduced us a while ago, but you were out cold.” Hunk explained, pointing to angry mullet.

 

“Hey Keith. Nice mullet. By the way, how long have I been out?” Lance asked, arching his neck back to see over Pidge’s shoulder to find Shiro spread out in the back seat, asleep. This all felt so surreal.

 

“About a day.” Hunk explained, shifting slightly, probably sore and tired from having carried him all of that time.

 

His first day of freedom and he’d spent it unconscious. Of course.

 

“How is Shiro?” he asked as he rubbed his temples gently. The throbbing pain in his head, which probably originated from his ruptured ears, was not made any easier by the constant rumbling of the car.

 

“Tired and bruised.” Keith replied abruptly, one hand in the wheel and the other pulling slightly on his hair. Somehow, his scowl seemed deeper. How that was even possible, Lance didn’t know. 

 

“So you guys are block buddies or what’s the deal here?” Lance asked, leaning back against the car door, careful to leave space so that Hunk could stretch out. He looked pretty tired and probably hadn’t really been able to rest with an unconscious Lance draped over him.

 

“Block… buddies?” Keith asked, looking sideways at Lance for a moment.

 

“Yeah, you know, cage neighbors?” he tried elaborating, but mullet didn’t seem to understand that either. “Forget it.” Lance finally sighed, shrugging his shoulders. “I’ll get it out of him when he wakes up.”

 

Keith tensed up immediately. He didn’t look nervous, per se, but uncomfortable. And tired.

 

“So, for how long have you been driving?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow. Keith, seemingly a bit relieved by the change of topic, shrugged, leaning back into his seat. “Since we left.”

 

“Nonstop?” Lance insisted. 

 

Keith seemed to understand what he was implying, so he simply glanced sideways at him. And it kind of made Lance’s blood boil. “I am not tired, if that’s what you’re insinuating. Besides, the only one who knows how to drive here, besides me, is Shiro. And his knee was practically busted in our escape. The only logical solution is for me to keep driving until we run out of gas. Then we’ll figure out our options.”

 

Lance was grinding his teeth halfway through Keith’s ‘logical conclusion’ but Hunk had fallen asleep against his shoulder and he didn’t want to wake him up. Besides, if he punched Keith, they were likely going to crash and he really didn’t feel like dying. But he really hated how Keith talked and how he looked at him as if he was just a pebble stuck in his shoe.

 

“I bet driving’s not that hard. What, you pull on a lever and the car moves forward and you steer it? See, you’re doing it, I bet I could learn in a flash.” Lance sneered, turning his head sideways.

 

“...You step on a pedal, not pull on a lever.”

 

“Yi stip on a pidal….” Lance imitated him, annoyed.

 

“Making friends already?” Pige suddenly asked, leaning forward again between the seats towards the car’s console, effectively blocking Keith’s furious glances at Lance.

 

“He started it.” they both immediately chimed in and then stared at each other in rage. 

 

“Eyes on the road, bird brain!” Lance squeaked after a particularly bad bump, holding on to Hunk’s head so that it wouldn’t bounce around.

 

“My brain is not a bird’s!”

 

And that almost broke Lance’s annoyance and make him laugh, so he decided to turn his attention to Pidge, who was rolling her eyes so much, they were probably going to roll of her skull. “What ya doin’, Pidgey?” he asked, noticing that she had taken the console clean off and was pulling and cutting some wires. “And are you sure you should be doing that while we’re inside the car in movement?” he added, a bit nervously. Pidge scoffed and confidently tore one particularly long wire. “Of course I know what I’m doing, you nincompoop.” she muttered, sticking her tongue out a bit as she shoved her arm into the hole that had once been the console, looking for something. “We all know that it is highly likely that this car is being tracked, right?” she asked, rhetorically, since she didn’t wait for an answer. Though she probably wouldn’t have gotten one, since both boys’ faces had paled with the realization that she was right and neither of them had considered that possibility. “I am… looking for that damned locator…”

 

Both of them fell into a terrified silence, a sense of paranoia seeded within them.

 

“But Pidge, even if you got the locator itself out… They’d still have the information, right?” Keith asked, his knuckles white from how hard he was holding the steering wheel, his eyes glancing back and forth between the road and the rearview mirror, expecting a search and contain unit any second now.

 

“They are going to be busy enough cleaning up the mess that became the lab for the time being. And… dammit!” she hissed, pulling back her hand quickly and sticking her thumb into her mouth.

 

“What? Did it explode? Are we doomed? Are they coming?” Lance asked, panicking and looking backwards and around them as fast as he could without disturbing Hunk. 

 

“No, you idiot. I pinched my finger.” she huffed, looking annoyed at the tip of her finger and then diving once again into the hollowed out console. “As I was saying  … as long as I can get my hands on that tracker and access to an interface… Which I think we have on the truck of this thing…. I can… change the data so that it shows a different route and AHA!”

 

Hunk, who had managed to stay asleep through all of Keith and Lance’s bickering jumped up, flaring out his wings. Which didn’t only struck Keith across the face, but also blocked his view.

 

“Hunk, stop-!” Keith tried to say, muffled by feathers while Lance simply laughed and patted Hunk in the head. “It”s okay, Hunk, it’s just Pidge being loud, we’re okay!” The car veered from left to right slightly and Hunk quickly tucked his wings back in, glancing apologetically at Keith. “Sorry man, reflexes.” He then glared at Pidge and returned to cuddle against his human pillow, Lance.

 

“Sorry buddy.” Pidge apologized, but seemed a bit too happy with her finding to really look sorry.

 

“Did you find it?” Lance asked amused as Hunk cuddled to him and Keith spat out small feathers, his scowl back in his face at full force.

 

“Yup! And this should work perfectly.” 

 

Careful not to budge or step on Shiro, Pidge maneuvered her way to the back of the vehicle and out of Lance’s view.

 

She worked silently in the back for about an hour, leaving Keith and Lance to themselves again, an uncomfortable silence between them. In the end, Lance ended up looking out of the window to avoid looking at Keith.

 

He hadn’t realized how many trees there actually were. Sure, in the farm they’d had the odd tree and Lance used to love sitting beneath them, watching the sun filter through the leaves and her them rustling in the wind. But out here there were millions of trees. Keith had managed to find a road that, although a bit cracked and definitely unkept, lead them through a mountainous region that had hills brimming with trees in so many different shades of green that Lance was pretty sure he was seeing certain colours for the first time. He focused on the trees next to the road, trying to see if the leaves were the same as the ones back at the farm,but he really couldn’t tell with how fast the vehicle was going. He’d have to look closely once they were out of the car.

His eyes glanced up and, for a moment, was almost blinded with how  _ blue _ the sky was. The farm had an electrified metal mesh above them to keep them from escaping and it blocked their view of the sky. They obviously had no chance of looking at the sky from their cages and the flying training was done within a dome, so he’d never seen the sky looking so wide and free and inviting. His wings almost twitched with the excitement of flying in the open, unchained. 

 

“I wonder if the sea looks that blue.” he muttered to himself, leaning his chin on his hand, his eyes following the clouds that drifted by.

 

“The sea?” Keith asked not really turning to look at him.

 

Lance considered for a few seconds if he really wanted to talk to Keith about it. He hesitated, but in the end, for better or for worse, they were going to have to lean on one another to survive this mess. He might as well share a memory or two.

 

“Back in the farm there was a lady who always used to sing. I never really understood her words, but one of the old ones said that she was singing about an ocean. It took me a while to realize that she had been singing in Earth.” he leaned against the window, his mind replaying an old and faded version of the words to him. “She always seemed so sad.”

 

None of them knew how to speak Earth. It made no practical sense for them to learn. So, from a young age, they had been taught Galra by the scientists. Earth had been forbidden a long time ago, and supposedly lost, though some still spoke it in secret.

 

“Earth?” Keith asked in a hushed voice, almost to himself.

 

“Yeah, Earth, you know? Like the planet we live on? What humans used to speak before the Galra came?” Lance asked, amused that Keith didn’t even know that. It was sad how much knowledge had been lost already, really, but he was oddly happy of knowing something that Keith didn’t.

 

And yet, when Keith took his eyes off of the road to look at him for a moment, there it was again. It was a pity look. Keith thought he knew something that Lance didn’t and it drove him up the fucking wall.

“Look here-” he started, glaring directly at Keith, but was interrupted by Hunk shuffling in his arms.

 

“Guys, what is that?” 

 

Lance turned to see what Hunk was pointing at. Once covered by the trees and hills, the gray remains of some kind of building complex were now in plain view, nestled in the valley between the mountains.

 

“It… It isn’t Galra, right?” Lance asked, his body tensing up.

 

“It’s an abandoned city.” Keith replied, glancing back and forth between the road and the ruins. 

 

“Obviously. What I’m asking is if it is a Galra city.” lance hissed back, narrowing his eyes, tired of being constantly made look like a fool by Keith.

 

“Galras don’t have cities. Much less decaying ones. It is obviously an abandoned human city.”

 

Hunk was quick to hold him back, though before he could even open his mouth, a low chuckle made them stop.

 

“I see you two have met each other already.” Shiro said groggily, leaning slowly between the two seats just as Pidge had. Lance humphed while Keith remained silent. “How are you feeling?” Hunk asked, ignoring the other two and focusing on Shiro. “Alive.” he replied with a wide smile, though Hunk didn’t seem satisfied. “Just… be careful with that knee. If you pop it out again before it heals and it heals like that…” Shiro seemed uncomfortable with the mere suggestion, so he simply nodded, shifting his weight slightly, making sure he was not leaning any weight on his injured knee. “So? How long have we been going for? How much fuel do we have?” Shiro asked, glancing over Keith’s shoulder. 

 

“We have been going for 32 hours. We haven’t been followed but we surely can be tracked.” Keith informed, sounding all professional a d pissing Lance off. “Working on that!” Pidge called from the back of the car, making Shiro lean back to look at what she was doing.

 

“I really don’t understand your problem with me.” Keith said softly, not taking his eyes off the road. Hunk looked a bit hesitant between them before untangling himself and maneuvering himself to the back seat too, not before sending Lance a pointed look. Lance simply sighed and stretched his body, finally having the seat to himself. “You are a stranger. That’s all.” Lance replied, looking everywhere but at Keith. It was half the truth. In all honesty, though, he was feeling a bit jealous. Not that he’d ever admit that himself. Keith had been all cool, dragging Shiro to safety, driving the car for over 30 hours and knowing so much stuff that Lance didn’t. It pissed him off. Keith had said nothing, and simply continued to drive. 

 

“All right, it seems we’re gonna be off the radar soon. We should find a place to rest. You’re exhausted Keith.” Shiro said, leaning back in between the front seats. Lance was about to tell him that it was pointless, that Keith was as stubborn as a brick when Keith’s soft “Yeah.” stopped him on his tracks. He almost got dizzy with how fast he turned to look at Keith, indignation written all over his face. “Oh! So when Shiro says it you listen to him? But when I say the same thing half an hour ago it’s all ‘Shut up, Lance! I’m fine ‘cause I’m Keith and I have mullet powers!’ huh?!” Shiro actually laughed at this and Keith turned for a moment to look at him, one eyebrow up. “I never said that.” he muttered, but was drowned out by Hunk and Pidge. “We got it! That’s it! We’re off the radar!” “That was brilliant, Hunk!” 

 

Shiro turned to look at the two of them in the back, leaving a fuming Lance and a quiet Keith. “Besides, you’re a stranger too.” he pointed out to Lance, who simply crossed his arms and leaned to look out the window at the remains of the human city. It would have to do for the time being, then. Home.


	6. Nesting

The sound of the vehicle’s motor as they drove down the empty streets was almost deafening to Lance. The tall skeletal buildings echoed it back to them, their broken and dirty windows reflecting their anxious procession through the empty streets. He couldn’t help but wonder when had been the last time that those windows had reflected humans.  

 

He felt vulnerable and his paranoia would not even allow him the fantasy of flying out in the wide open sky. Besides the fact that Shiro was hurt and definitely could not fly, the pale blue that had once felt so inviting now felt too wide.

Too open.

He kept repeating to himself that Pidge had disabled the tracker, that they were out, free, but it was all so fickle. He had lived under the control of the Galra for so long, lived in fear for so long… He no longer knew if he could live without being scared of them. Maybe he would never be truly free of that fear.

 

He bit his lip anxiously, so lost in his own thoughts that he almost jumped out of his own skin when Pidge pushed herself through the two front seats to seat besides him and get a better view.

“You’re thinking something stupid.” she said, looking sideways at him, unimpressed.

 

She had a way of knowing them, knowing what they were thinking. It was probably that attention to the little things that made her so good with machines and computers.

That, her training by the Galra and her above average memory probably helped too.

 

Lance opened his mouth to deny it, but then closed it. He could refute her, but it would be pointless. She wasn't asking, she knew. Keith looked curiously at them from the corner of his eye for just a moment before turning his attention back to the road.

“Stop it.” Pidge added, placing her hand on his cheek and pushing his face towards the window. “Instead of brooding around, look for somewhere where we can hind this thing.”

It still felt unreal, being able to touch and hold each other like that, and it made Lance smile. Pidge chatted away with Keith and Shiro while they drove around the city, but she didn't move from his side, allowing him to lean on her, reminding him what they were fighting for.

 

The ruins of the city gave them plenty of places where they could hide their stolen vehicle, which could definitely come in handy later on, but they still drove for an hour more before they found an underground parking lot that seemed to be structurally stable. They drove down about three floors before Shiro and Keith decided they were content with the location.

Lance was feeling slightly claustrophobic, but he had to admit that amongst the carcasses of old, rusted human cars, their vehicle was almost indistinguishable unless you knew where to look for it.

And, to his delight, Keith scratched it against another car while finding the perfect place.

“There. That’s what you get, Mr. Perfect, when you try to drive twelve hours plus. Not that good a pilot now, huh?” he asked with a smirk which only earned him a confused look from Keith and an eye roll from Pidge. He kinda knew he was being petty himself, but he just wanted to prove that Keith wasn’t all that great.

Even if no one had suggested so.

 

“We need supplies and a good place to rest.” Shiro grunted as Hunk helped him step out of the van, careful not to slam his injured wing into anything. “Supplies means anything from bedding to food. Maybe even something we can use as weapons, just in case. We should split up.”

“You’re too injured to be looking around, Shiro.” Keith immediately pointed out before Lance could even open his mouth to say the exact same thing. “We’ll go looking. Stay here and rest a bit more. Your body is using all of its energy to heal, don’t deny it some rest.”

Lance tilted his head while Shiro laughed. “It’s not fair when you use my lessons against me.” he said smiling, sounding bit tired. “All right, I'll stick to ground level, around this area. We can meet back here at dusk.”

 

“You look tired too, you know.” Lance pointed out as they started climbing the stairs that would lead them to the street. He didn’t even turn to look at Keith. He wasn’t really worried about him, but it was bad enough having one of them downed. Having Keith overexert himself while they could just as well do the searching was stupid.

“I am. But the more of us searching, the faster we’ll find what we are looking for.” Keith answered back without missing a beat. Lance pouted, annoyed by his stubbornness. Or maybe because it kinda made Keith look cool, but he wasn’t going to accept that.

“Pidge, Hunk and I are more than enough to find what we need. We’ll be fine. You can stay back with Shiro and look after him if you don’t fall over asleep.” Keith huffed.

“It’s not like I have a regular sleeping pattern, you know.” he hissed back at Lance, annoyed at the fact that his reliability was being tested. “Besides, you don’t even know what you’re looking for. You don’t know a thing about humans.”

 

Hunk and Pidge, having heart the start of the argument had looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and walked faster and away from the pair of quarrelling idiots.

 

“Oh, and I guess you know more than I do?” Lance asked as they finally left the underground parking lot.

Keith remained quiet as they walked into the open space and Lance considered himself victor.

“Look I’m just saying that if you topple over from exhaustion, don’t expect me to come over and save your but.” he said finally, shrugging his shoulders and expanding his wings before jumping up into the air and flapping his long wings to become airborne.

“Can’t even save your own but!” Keith called to him, angered. But he knew that Lance was right. Keith was exhausted and would probably do nothing more than get in their way, but the taller boy was already well beyond hearing him.

 

Keith glared at the retreating figure for a moment, half expecting him to be immediately shot down. It wouldn’t have been the first time he would’ve seen it, but Lance disappeared into a half collapsed building though, safe and sound.

He knew the sigh of relief he breathed then was probably an exaggeration, but his life had been a chain of worse case scenarios and he couldn't see any reason for that to stop now. He knew that Pidge had disabled the tracker quickly enough so that they would not be easily found. At least, he hoped so.

 

Still, the best thing to do would be to continue moving, away from the vehicle. Flying would be ideal, they could cover longer distances in a shorter amount of time, but if Shiro couldn't fly again (which was a real possibility he had to consider) they would have to walk. Walking would greatly diminish their possibilities of survival, of being caught or starving.

Therefore, getting Shiro airborne and rested was priority number one. Which was why Keith had been flying circles over the ruins, looking for any building which could be a hospital.

 

He had been genetically built as a hunter, a predator. He could turn on a whim and his eyesight was excellent, design to be able to spot prey from miles away.

A giant red cross, though it's colour had faded with the years, was easy enough to find.

This was a relatively large city, but it was close to a Galra colony, so it would've probably been evacuated and left alone. No raider in their right mind would venture anywhere near any Galra settlement, so he had high hopes of finding supplies.

 

The hospital's white corridors were, as he had expected, mostly untouched. If it were not for the rubble and general nature overtaking the place, it would've been as if its last occupants had left yesterday. He found  a large, black duffel bag, marked "E.R." in the first level. Most of the medicine he found was probably too old to be safe for use, but the bandages, iodine and rubbing alcohol were just fine, so into the bag they went. He also managed to dig out some thermal blankets and empty water bottles. It was, honestly, more than he was expecting to find.

 

As he left the hospital, he made a mental note to return later, once he had rested, to search again. He was sure he'd missed other things, but his exhaustion was beginning to mess with his eyesight and his head was hurting like hell.

He turned back to the direction of the rendezvous point and hesitated for a second. He was really tired, which would make flying hard and dangerous, there being a real possibility of him falling over due to exhaustion. But if he tried to walk back he could get lost and he would definitely take longer and fall over due to exhaustion. He was already frowning, bothered by the fact that he would have to face Lance and his smug 'I told you so' either way.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he unfurled his wings, looking up into the sky, trying to plan his route. "Come on, Kogane, you've had it worse than this. You can make it." he prepped himself, holding on to his precious cargo and reminding himself how much it could help Shiro. He would pull through.

He had to.

 

Getting off the ground was, actually, the hardest part. His brain now felt like it was collapsing on itself and his wings were sluggish and unsynchronized. It took him an embarrassing amount of time to go past the rooftops and finally reach a warm current of air, which helped him climb up further. He was unfocused and clumsy, but he managed to fly towards the building he had seen Lance fly into. It had a huge gaping hole in the middle of it, exposing rooms and hallways to the elements and almost making a prefect landing stripe.

It was one of the worst landings he had ever done, but he landed none the less, nothing on himself or his precious cargo broken. He was out of breath and his legs could barely carry him, still he managed to get the bag off of his shoulders and carry it and himself further into the building. He wasn't really sure how or when he'd fallen, his consciousness slowly fading away, but he could bet his ass it hadn't been elegant. He just hoped no one had seen him. Maybe he could even wake up before dusk and pretend that he had been awake and fine all along. He scoffed softly and begrudgingly accepted sleep.

\--

He was warm and comfortable and he didn't want to move. He let that feeling seep into him for a few seconds before his brain finally decided to come back online, flooding him with adrenaline and alarm. He jumped up, gasping, his arms flailing and his wings spreading out in order to be ready to fly up and out a seconds notice.

 

"Keith, stop it!" He heard a familiar voice complain along with some laughter, but it took him a few more seconds to process what was going on around him.

 

He was sitting in what seemed like a pile of old mattresses covered in different blankets and pillows that was shoved into a corner and his right wing as pining Lance against the wall, much to Pidge's delight. She was sitting next to a large window which was half covered by what seemed like poorly sewn together curtains with a pile of ancient human mechanics around her.

 

"Seriously, man! I can't breath!" Lance complained once again, this time trying to shove his wing away. "Oh. Sorry." he muttered, still drowsy, and folded his wings to free Lance."Where are we though?" he asked, looking around the room curiously while he rubbed his face.

"Home, for now." Pidge answered, standing up and heading off the right of the room, where he could see what looked like a small kitchen. "Want some water?" she asked lifting one of the empty bottles he had retrieved from the hospital which was now filled with water. His mouth suddenly felt dry and disgusting so he simply nodded.

 

"Hey, is he up?" Hunk's voice came from somewhere above them, which made Keith notice the spiral stairs that, although were useless to them since the room was large enough for them to jump up with a boost of their wings, clearly signalled the fact that there was a second floor.

 

"He's up." Lance called back, not so enthusiastically, going back to what he was doing before Keith had given him a faceful of feathers. Curiously, Keith leaned sideways to try and see what Lance was so concentrated on that he hadn't even mocked him for having fainted in a strange place, but Pidge came back, water bottle in hand.

"Here you go. Drink up. You must be parched." He nodded quickly and accepted the bottle, his eyes once more going towards the window, noting the stray rays of sunlight that slipped through the poorly sewn curtains. It definitely wasn't dusk light. "How long was I out?" he asked after clearing his throat, wondering if water had always tasted so good. "And where is Shiro?"

 

"A week." Lance replied quickly, straight faced, but Pidge's snicker gave the rouse away.

 

"A day and a half." Hunk said after having jumped down from the top floor. "And Shiro just went downstairs to get some more water."

 

Lance glanced sideways at Keith who almost looked cute, all confused and thoughtful with his dark hair sticking up in every direction.

Almost.

He busied himself again with his weaving. A kind old woman from his farm had taught him long ago and he'd often done so in the cages with torn pieces of clothes and covers. They'd made the curtains in a hurry during their first night and with fleeting light, just to keep peering eyes from being able to look in through the window during the night, but they were poorly made and were already falling apart. So, he'd busied himself with finding fabrics, those that were too dirty or rough to use in their beds, and had started tearing their edges and weaving them together.

It was something small and probably useless, especially with how hungry they all were, but they had all agreed that they couldn't just leave Keith asleep and alone and that they couldn't go out scavenging just at any hour, so they had all taken up small projects to pass the time.

Pidge had, of course, started gathering any and every electronic she could find and messing with it, although she had found them a bit too archaic compared to the Galra technology she was used to.

Hunk had begun making a more permanent bedding solution upstairs with salvaged wood he had found around and he had the curtain weaving.

 

"He's coming up the stairs. Just wait a bit more." he mumbled to Keith who was shakingly standing up. Keith looked sideways at him, frowning.

"How do you know?" he asked, perhaps not wanting to sound as suspicious as he did, but it still made Lance scoff in annoyance.

"Hello, nice to meet you, I am a genetic mutation with legs." he snapped in reply, pointing at his own ear with one finger. "I have super hearing, see? For example, I can hear your heartbeat, which is the only evidence I have so far that you actually have a heart. And I'm still not sure that the sound isn't just your lungs or kidney or something."

Keith's face darkened. "That's not how lungs or kidneys work, moron."

And Lance wasn't throwing himself at Keith, fists first, just because he didn't want to lose the thread he was weaving, but he was starting to consider if leaving that idiot with a broken nose would be worth an hour of his work. Before he could answer though, a low laughter came from the front door of the apartment.

 

"Good to see you up, Keith. And so lively too." Shiro said with a wide smile, carrying the black duffel bag Keith had salvaged from the hospital, apparently full with something.

"Stop talking like an old lady." Keith huffed, crossing his arms and looking sideways. "And he started it." he added, recognizing the tension in Shiro's smile, which warned him against starting conflict.

"Bullshit!" Lance quickly squeaked, but Shiro's eyes on him quickly settled him down. and left him quiet.

Shiro sighed and pointed them at a large and old metal table they had salvaged and placed in the middle of the room where he placed the duffel bag. "What did you find?" Pidge asked curiously, leaving her work and walking up to him, as all of them did too. "Food." he answered with a happy smile as he produced something Lance had never ever seen in his life.

 

Food in the cages had been just dry pellets of meshed up fuck knows what. He vaguely remembered eating some kind of mushed up concoction in the farms, but it had been just as bland. What Shiro had brought out of the bag was longer than his hand and seemed to be a package of leaves, which he wondered if were even edible.

"What is that?" Hunk asked as Shiro dug his fingers into the leaves as if to rip it open. "Are you sure it's safe?" he added, sounding a bit anxious.

"Yup!" Shiro said excitedly as he produced a long yellow thing from within the leaves. "It's a _corn_. I found a bunch of them while I went to the spring."

Lance could barely get his eyes away from the thing that was a yellow that he had never associated with food, but when he heard the word Shiro had used he turned to look at him instead, stars almost shining in his eyes. "That. What you called it." he said quickly, almost incomprehensible in his excitement. " _Corn_?" Shiro repeated and Lance nodded excitedly. "That's Earth, isn't it?" he asked.

Keith gave Shiro a strange look, but Lance couldn't care less.

"Yeah." Shiro smiled, a bit subdued at the beginning, but regained his composure after a second. "Wanna hold it? It's completely safe. It's a _vegetable_." Lance almost squealed as he heard another Earth word (both of them which Pidge was already trying to repeat) and happily accepted the corn.

 

"It... feels so weird. I thought it would be soft. How do we eat it?" Lance asked as he shared the corn with Hunk who also seemed fascinated.

"Boiling them should do the trick." Shiro answered and Keith visibly paled. "We're going to start a fire here?" he asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

"And give the Galra a bright shining beacon to find us? No way, dude. We're way ahead of you. We've been boiling the water to make it drinkable." Pidge said quickly with a proud smile. "And it's all thanks to Hunk here."

Hunk, who had already de-leafed another corn, blushed a bit and smiled. "I just suggested we used the panels. Pidge found the angle."

"And you built it. Don't sell yourself short, big guy." Lance added with a sly smile, elbowing his friend.

 

It took a bit too long for Lance's liking for the corn to be ready. He had tried to pick one up as soon as Shiro had announced them as done, but he had just succeeded in burning the ever living shit out of his hands and mouth.

"They're just out of the boiling water, Lance! What did you expect?" Shiro had chided him, but Lance had just pouted and sat glaring at the corn until Shiro had announced them to be cool enough. And the wait had been worth it.

 

"This is the most amazing thing I have ever tried. Ever." he practically squealed as he chewed on his first bite. Pidge laughed with her mouth closed and hit Lance's arm. "Close your mouth, you animal. You're disgusting." she complained once she had swallowed her own food. Lance whined and rubbed his arm.

"She's pretty damned strong!" he quickly defended himself against Keith, who had said nothing, but had one eyebrow raised. "Let her hit you and let's see if you... Hunk? Buddy? Are you crying?"

They all turned to Hunk who was, by then, a blubbering mess of tears.

 

"Hunk? Are you okay?" Pidge said quickly, putting her own corn down and walking to her friend, placing her arm around his shaking shoulders. "Did you burn your mouth? Bite your tongue?" Lance asked quickly, his own corn also left behind as he gently rubbed circles on Hunk's back.

It took a few seconds for Hunk to finally be able to talk through his tears. "It's just... We're free. I know... We've been for a while, but... I just... We might actually survive and..." Pidge and Lance looked at each other, sharing a small smile while holding their friend through his tears.

"Yeah, I know." Pidge said as she grabbed her food and returned to sit besides Hunk, leaning her head on his shoulder. "It seemed so impossible, yet here we are." Lance also took his food and sat closer to his friends but just hummed in agreement, since he was sure he wouldn't be able to talk without his voice breaking too.

 

"We still have a lot to do." Shiro said softly, looking at Pidge with a soft smile. Apparently, after Matt had been taken from their block, he had been taken to where Shiro and Keith had been, Advanced Training, they called it. He had been eventually taken away, split into a different team, but they had all reasons to believe that he was still alive and probably had escaped to. "But, after everything... It is kind of overwhelming to finally be free, huh?"

And, for some reason or another, Lance's eyes strayed to Keith. He'd been looking at Shiro with a fond smile, but once he felt Lance's eyes on him, he turned to him as well.

"We'll find him. He's smarter than he looks. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one that blew that place to hell." Pidge said, smiling through her own tears. Shiro laughed and, perhaps swept by the moment, Lance smiled warmly at Keith. It lasted just for a second, and when it dawned on them, they both quickly turned away.

 

"I bet he tried to look all cool while he did it too." Lance added quickly, smirking.

"And failed miserably?" Pidge concluded and the three of them laughed while Shiro rolled his eyes with a smile on his lips. Keith just wondered how long this would last.

 

Or how long it should last.


End file.
